Freefall
by Seiberwing
Summary: Alexis takes Starscream for a ride. Or is it the other way around? Het, if you squint.


Author's Note: I'm normally not a huge fan of Alexis/Starscream because of how badly it's usually handled. But I like Alexis and she likes Starscream so I figured they needed fic together. Take this how you will.

**Freefall**

Alexis was fairly sure they would break the sound barrier at any moment. She had no idea how high up they were, nor did she want to know, and nor was she going to let Starscream have any idea how terrified she was.

"Comfortable?" Starscream asked. He didn't exactly have a mouth in vehicle mode, but his voice indicated he would be smirking if he had one.

"Of course. I'm fine." Alexis forced a laugh, trying to show that she was completely at ease with being inside a sentient jet who seemed quite intent on turning her into a quivering ball of jelly.

Starscream abruptly went into a barrel roll and laughed at the human's shriek of surprise and fear. She was human, a weak wingless blob of flesh good for nothing but cheerleading for the Autobots. Of course she was scared. Once he'd thoroughly proved his point on that matter, she'd beg to return to the ground and he wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing again. Humans were all alike.

"I told you that you couldn't handle this," Starscream taunted. "Let's just go back to the nice safe dirt and your Autobot friends, okay?" He tilted himself and sent Alexis jerking to one side. She had no harness, and the girl would be covered in bruises the next morning.

Alexis' eyes narrowed and she grabbed Starscream's controls as if she was the one in command of the situation. "I can take anything you can dish out, Starscream!" The best way to make Alexis do anything was to tell her that she couldn't.

Alexis' fingers clenched around Starscream's control yoke as Starscream rocketed off, pulling off maneuvers that would have made her feel woozy just to look at. She was strong, she'd be fine, even if her trembling hands that grabbed and clung to anything in sight made her look just this side of terrified.

Starscream shivered slightly at the extremely intimate contact--why had he allowed someone inside him again? A human someone, at that—gah, make her stop groping him there! On Cybertron, he hadn't even had a proper cockpit, let alone one that could bear a small flesh thing with fearful little fingers that refused to stay in one place. It made it harder to concentrate on making her scream in fear.

Starscream finally stopped showing off when Alexis seemed close to fainting. He hovered, clearly showing his superiority to any Earth jet, and opened his cockpit. "Want out?"

Alexis took a cautious look over the edge and resisted the urge to wince. She snapped back, "I didn't exactly bring my parachute."

Starscream laughed and wiggled his wings just enough to set the human off-balance. " Don't worry, I'll catch you before you hit the ground. Or don't you trust a Decepticon?"_ Here it comes. She's going to curl up and huddle back in my cockpit, like the pathetic weakling she is. Promises, promises, but she can't back them up. Just like an Autobot._

Alexis swallowed and stared at the ground again. Alexis wanted to prove to Starscream that at least one of the Autobot's allies was willing to reach out to him, to prove that they believed in him and wanted him to believe in them. The reason no one else knew they were up here was that Prime would probably lock Alexis up for being foolish enough to put her life in the hands of a Decepticon. If he just dropped her here, no one would ever know and no one would find her body.

But she trusted him. Or at least needed to act like it.

Alexis took a deep breath and stepped out of Starscream's cockpit.

_GoingtodiestupidstupidI'lldieI'lldie_

Alexis felt the air rushing by her, saw the ground rushing closer, and desperately hoped that there'd be enough of her for a funeral. She wasn't afraid of heights any more than most people, but the events that would occur once she ran out of sky did not look appealing.

_Deaddeaddead--bzuh?_

Alexis felt cold metal wrap around her, gently slowing her descent. She forced her eyes away from the incoming ground and saw Starscream falling next to her, thrusters on low impulse so as to slow down without giving her whiplash.

_Starscream! Yesyesyesthankyouthankyou thank you for having wings. _

Starscream looked at her, seeming very confused. His lips moved, but she couldn't hear anything over the roar of the wind. "What?" she screamed. Starscream said something else, then pulled her closer and tucked her into his cockpit. Alexis groped at the sides of it, attempting to pull herself down to the bottom of it. They were still in freefall and Alexis wanted to be braced against something stable when gravity in relation to her body became normal.

"Why did you do that?" Starscream asked curiously as he transformed. His voice resonated through the walls and floor of the cockpit, filling Alexis' grateful head with something other than the aftershocks of pure fear.

"You told me to, remember?" she panted, grinning up at his cockpit glass with a weak sense of victory.

Starscream remained silent for the rest of the trip back to the base. Humans were...strange. Different, especially Alexis. She was been either incredibly foolish, tremendously insane, or had as much suicidal self-confidence as Starscream himself.

Hm.

If Alexis ever grew five meters, and lost the kind streak, she'd make a decent Decepticon.


End file.
